Ukraine war: With China’s Help, Moscow Says It Has Tripled Its Drone Production
Ukraine war: With China’s Help, Moscow Says It Has Tripled Its Drone Production
With China’s Help, Moscow Says It Has Tripled Its Drone Production
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday claimed that Russia has already more than tripled its planned overall drone production volumes for 2025.
Mishustin credited the ramped-up manufacturing to greater state financial support for producers and innovators, including civilian companies.
Analysts from the Washington-based think tank, Institute for the Study of War, assessed that increased Russian long-range drone production is enabling Russia’s growing nightly strikes against civilian targets in Ukraine. It has also enabled Russian forces to integrate Shahed-like drones into strikes against frontline Ukrainian positions, ISW reported.
The think tank specified that Russian forces are “continuing to integrate drones into frontline combat operations to strike frontline and rear Ukrainian positions, and to interdict Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) in tandem with Russian MLRS and artillery systems.”
[...]
Ukraine-based open-source intelligence organization Frontelligence Insight said on Tuesday that Russian forces have launched 28,743 total Shahed variant drones (Shahed-136/131 and Geran 2) since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and that Russian forces launched 10 percent of this total (2,736 drones) in June 2025 alone.
[...]
One electronic and radio warfare expert cited by ISW, Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov reported on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had observed a new type of Chinese wi-fi router on radio modems installed on Russian “Gerber” drones.
Is there anything that china might want that would make them fully stop supporting Russia
Taiwan
Doubtful as losing Russia means they lose one of their sources of cheap fossil fuels, decreasing their redundancy and increasing input costs across China. The material gain they have in Taiwan is TSMC. However they can replicate that given time, and they can function without sub-7nm silicon till then. Meanwhile they would have major trouble if their fossil inputs increase in price significantly. I think Taiwan is more of a political goal and a long term at that.
Why would they stop supporting Russia? China has been under economic attack by the US for three administrations now and the US has been encircling them with military bases. The EU hasn't helped. From Chinese perspective, their sovereignty is not assured and it's doubtful that the EU or the US would demonstrate new friendship if they stopped supporting Russia. In that case, throwing one of their main sources of fossil fuels and a giant buffer under the bus doesn't seem like a good proposition. In a war scenario with the US, the oil shipments from the Gulf are likely to stop one way or another which makes Russian fossil fuels that much more important.
I agree, so what they would want is equal partnerships with the EU and the US. I get that it's unlikely or near impossible to happen, but I was wondering what could actually be a solution for them to drop russia.
Probably not. They really want Taiwan, but even that probably wouldn't be enough to get them to to abandon their closest ally/colony, and anything else the West can offer they'll just figure out/procure on their own.
Actual western sanctions and western companies leaving the country. They can only play hard now because of how West is so dependent on China for key manufacturing facilities
Western sanctions can do a lot, and I mean seriously a lot, but coerce China into abandoning their closest major ally and source of cheap oil? Good luck. China can survive without the West far better than the West can survive without China. The nuclear "I will get my way no matter what" option doesn't exist in a truly multipolar world.
Is there anything that would stop America supporting Russia?
Which part?
They are building up their military industry with Russian money. Why would they stop ?
That's what I am asking, what would make them stop